CONDUCTING SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS FOR SOCIAL POLICY: THE ROLE OF UNDERSTANDING DISCOURSES IN METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

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This thesis uses a case study of the process of conducting a systematic review
in the field of substance misuse in order to analyse critically how knowledge is
cumulated for the purposes of informing social policy. The analysis is grounded in two
areas of social research that are seldom drawn together; the methodological (in this
instance, the work of the social research methodologist Donald Campbell) and the
linguistic (in the form of a measured application of discourse analysis). By means of
this dual approach it is proposed that a better understanding can be obtained not only
of how systematic review methods may be usefully developed, but also of the
substantive impact that the way in which those methods are discussed and debated
(through discourse) can have upon the development. In this way, the process of
conducting a systematic review for social policy is critically located within an
understanding of both policy making and methodological development as discursive
processes. This is important for the way that it allows evidence for policy and practice
(both in the sense of the framing of the evidence and the methods used to synthesize
it) to be discussed in terms that prioritize respectful debate rather than the promotion of
particular methods as superior for the production and synthesis of knowledge.
Furthermore, it enables a critical understanding of how dominant discourses can not
only frame policy issues, but also the production of evidence-bases that are
subsequently used in the policy making process.

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All items in PEARL are protected by copyright law.
Author manuscripts deposited to comply with open access mandates are made available in accordance with
publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document.
In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be
sought from the publisher or author.